1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recoil starter for an internal combustion engine, and in particular, to a recoil starter to be employed for starting an internal combustion engine which is adapted to be mounted on a backpack type power working machine such as a backpack type power brush cutter, a backpack type power sprayer, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recoil starter to be employed for starting an internal combustion engine such as air-cooled two-stroke gasoline engine which is adapted to be mounted on a backpack type power working machine is generally constructed such that it is provided with a recoil handle (recoil rope) so that the internal combustion engine can be started by pulling the recoil handle against the compression-resisting force of the engine, and that once this recoil handle is released, the recoil rope is automatically wound up to the original state thereof by the effect of recoil-urging means.
When the recoil rope is kept wound up to the original state thereof, i.e. when the engine-starting operation is not performed, the recoil handle is usually kept stayed at the recoil rope outlet port of the main body of the starter. Therefore, it is difficult for the operator to reach the recoil handle under the condition where the working machine is kept shouldered by the operator's back, i.e. it is difficult for the operator to pull the recoil handle for starting the internal combustion engine under such a condition as mentioned above.
Therefore, if the operator wishes to restart the internal combustion engine after the engine is stopped while carrying the working machine on his back, the working machine is required to be dismounted from his back, causing significant inconvenience to the operator.
Whereas, when a D.C. motor type starter is employed as a starter, the internal combustion engine can be easily started while carrying the working machine on the operator's back. In that case however, the total weight of the working machine would be considerably increased due to the D.C. motor and the battery to be used as a power source for the D.C. motor, and the structure of the starter would become complicated, thus increasing the manufacturing cost thereof.
Under the circumstances, there has been proposed a recoil starter which enables an operator to perform the starting operation of the internal combustion engine under the condition where the backpack type power working machine is kept shouldered by the operator's back as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication (Kokai) S59-19975 wherein the recoil rope is designed to be guided by a flexible guide pipe up to the operator's shoulder portion. Since this recoil starter is constructed such that the recoil handle thereof (recoil rope and one end of the guide pipe) is not supported at all, it is difficult to smoothly perform the rope-pulling operation. Moreover, since the recoil rope and the guide pipe end are allowed to hang around during the working operation, they may disturb the working operation, thus raising a problem.
On the other hand, Japanese Utility Model Publication H2-48695 discloses a recoil starter wherein a proximal end portion of the guide pipe for guiding the recoil rope is supported by the main body of starter, and a distal end portion of the guide pipe is secured to the shoulder contact portion of the shouldering band. According to this recoil starter, since the recoil handle (grip) is supported at the vicinity of a front portion of the shoulder (or a distal end portion of the guide pipe), the recoil handle can be prevented from being hung up. However, there are problems that the face of the operator may be impinged against the recoil handle, thus hindering the movement of the operator, and that the recoil rope-pulling operation may become difficult.
Additionally, in the case of the conventional recoil starter according to the prior art, since the recoil handle is formed into such a configuration as to enable the recoil handle to be entirely grasped by fingers (i.e. clutch type configuration) in view of the attaching position and the pull-out direction of the recoil handle, it is unavoidable to cause a large magnitude of load to be imposed on the fingers on the occasion of pulling the recoil handle, and moreover, such a configuration is not necessarily convenient to grasp.